In any war, certain weapons come symbolize one side in the fighting, specific tactics or political factors. In that spirit, a specific tank has become the icon of Russia's secret war in Ukraine.

On June 3, 2016, Ukrainian blogger "sled_vzayt" posted a batch of evidence showing advanced T-72B3 tanks — as well as other armored vehicles and heavy weapons — and their Russian crews in eastern Ukraine's Donbass region and right across the border in Russia.

While the post uses numerous photographs to identify specific tanks, the vehicles themselves offer some of the clearest proof that the Kremlin's troops are actively supporting rebel forces in Ukraine.

"In the Ukraine conflict, many have scoured the military equipment sightings on social media to find evidence of Russian involvement," Veli-Pekka Kivimäki, a Finnish doctoral student and open-source intelligence expert, wrote in a piece for the investigative Website Bellingcat on May 28, 2016.

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